Authors of documents typically from time to time require the input of others with respect to a particular document the author is preparing. In performing this collaborative effort, documents are sent from one person to another with the understanding that the receiver of the document will review it, make changes as the receiver sees fit, and return the document to the originator who will generally be the author of the original document. This exchange may be repeated several times and the document may be sent to more than one person to be reviewed and edited.
A common practice is to create an electronic document using a computer implemented application program. Once the document has been created, it is sent to a reviewer who can open the document within a compatible application program. With the document opened, the reviewer may review the document and make edits that may include comments within the text. If special editing features are available within the application program, the reviewer must be familiar enough with the application program to initiate the user interfaces for the features. After all appropriate edits are completed, the reviewer may return a copy of the edited electronic document to the author.
Once the author receives the copy of the edited electronic document, the author must locate on disk or other memory device the electronic document that was originally sent for review. After the electronic document is opened, the author must merge the changes received from the edited electronic document into the electronic document. This can be performed in many different ways. First, the author may simply review the two documents and manually edit the electronic document to reflect the changes received in the edited electronic document. If the application program contains a feature for merging and the author is familiar with the initiation of this feature, the electronic document can be modified to reflect the changes in the edited electronic document utilizing the merging feature.
Regardless of how the document is merged, the author must manually search for the electronic document on disk or other memory device and must be familiar with the initiation of the merging feature of the application program if in fact it contains such a merging feature. In addition, with respect to the reviewing of the document, the reviewer must also be aware of any special reviewing features of the application program and how to initiate their user interfaces as well.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for automatically displaying reviewing features within application programs, automatically locating an original electronic document once the reviewed document has been returned to a computer system, and automatically displaying document merging features within an application program.